SOCIAL MEDIA, CELEBRITY AND FANS: A STUDY OF INDONESIAN K-POP FANS PDF

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SOCIAL MEDIA, CELEBRITY AND FANS: A STUDY OF INDONESIAN K-POP FANS Evi Farsiah Utami 0332987 Master Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Communication TAYLOR’S UNIVERSITY 2019 1 Abstract Korean Wave entertainment products like K-pop are increasingly enjoyed ...

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SOCIAL MEDIA, CELEBRITY AND FANS: A STUDY OF INDONESIAN K-POP FANS Evi Farsiah

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SOCIAL MEDIA, CELEBRITY AND FANS: A STUDY OF INDONESIAN K-POP FANS

Evi Farsiah Utami 0332987

Master Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Communication TAYLOR’S UNIVERSITY 2019

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Abstract Korean Wave entertainment products like K-pop are increasingly enjoyed by worldwide audiences and acknowledged as part of lived experience through the help of online platform. Not only making the circulation and distribution of K-pop content easier and faster, social media also insinuate a possibility for the K-pop celebrity to cultivate, preserve and sustain their relationship with fans across the world. This study aimed to discover the current circumstances between the celebrity and fans in the age of social media by examining the fans of K-pop group BTS using the qualitative approach. In doing so, the study explored two elements that are considered prominent in influencing the modern fandom practices, the social media dependency and the notion of parasocial experience. The findings further clarified that the fans indeed experienced the parasocial effect from the online contents and their dependency toward social media also strengthened the parasocial occurrence due to the constant exposure of the contents. This study further validates the notion that social media is becoming a prominent bridge for both the celebrity and fans to be connected with each other on a seemingly intimate level.

Keywords: Parasocial Relationship, Parasocial Interaction, Social Media Dependency, Celebrity, Fans, K-pop

Acknowledgement The author wants to express deep gratitude to the astounding Dr Nurzihan Hassim as the research supervisor in this study, for her patient guidance, generous feedback and enthusiastic encouragement during the process of this research. 2

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction ................................................................................................................................4 1.1Problem Statement ..................................................................................................................5 1.2 Objective and Research Questions .........................................................................................7 1.3 Significance of The Study ......................................................................................................7 2.0 Literature Review.......................................................................................................................9 2.1 New Korean Wave Era ...........................................................................................................9 2.2 The Media Dependency of Fans ...........................................................................................10 2.3 The Parasocial Experience Between Celebrity and Fans .....................................................10 2.4 The K-pop Fandom Practices ...............................................................................................12 3.0 Research Methodology ............................................................................................................14 3.1 Theoretical Framework ........................................................................................................14 3.2 Sample of The Study ............................................................................................................16 3.3 Data Collection Instrument ..................................................................................................18 3.4 Data Analyses Method .........................................................................................................19 4.0 Analysis and Findings ..............................................................................................................20 4.1 The Extent of The Celebrity’s Influence ..............................................................................21 4.2 The Fans’ Social Media Dependency...................................................................................23 4.3 The Parasocial Experience in Social Media .........................................................................25 4.0 Discussion and Conclusion ......................................................................................................28

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1.0 Introduction Since the turn of the 21st century and along with the advent of online media platform, South Korea became the new king of Asia with its Korean Wave or also known as Hallyu immense popularity. The Korean Wave term was first used in 2000 by a Chinese media outlet as a descriptive label to illustrate the enormous and sudden burst of popularity of Korean entertainment product in China (Hogarth, 2013). Firstly, Korean Wave began its penetration to other countries through the export of K-drama and K-pop music. According to Jin (2018), the initiation of Korean Wave was mainly started in East and Southeast Asia; it began with few Korean TV dramas, such as Winter Sonata in 2002 and Dae Jang Geum in 2003, which then followed by the craze over K-pop artists, such as BoA, Super Junior and Girl's Generation in the late 2000s. Korean Wave creates the ‘Korean' craze in the Asian countries with the similar and familiar cultural proximity, such as Japan, Hongkong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia and many more (Jeong, Lee & Lee, 2017). Messaris (2016) study described how the infatuation toward Korean Wave translates into a lot of great benefit for South Korea creative economy industries, started from the continuous import of beauty products and the poignant influence of K-pop and K-drama in global audiences’ lifestyle. As seen from Jin (2018) and Kwon & Kim (2013) studies, South Korea advanced technologies and their adequate internet speed and reach helps accelerate the spread of Korean Wave products to the maximum and K-pop was the most benefitted sector since the proliferation of social networking sites because of the easy and practical online circulation of K-pop flashy music videos. Jin & Yoon (2014) study also emphasized the important fact that international fans mainly consumed K-pop music through the user-generated type of social media platform like YouTube, after they learned about the popularity of K-pop cultural forms from the other social media, such as Facebook and Twitter. These practices further help K-pop to gain momentum into worldwide domination. In a similar vein, the recent evidence for K-pop successful global infiltration through the help of social networking sites can be seen from when an unprecedented K-pop boyband, BTS, miraculously snatched the awards from Billboard Music Award (BBMA) as Top Social Media Artist for two consecutive years in 2017 and 2018 (Lipshutz, 2017; Cirisano, 2018). After their first international achievement in 2017, BTS continuously paved their way up in the United 4

States. BTS became the first K-pop boyband to top the Billboard 200 album charts and this prominent achievement was acquired with Korean song, instead of English song (Caulfield, 2018). Their achievements as a musician and K-pop artist were brought to them by none other than their loyal fandom known as ARMY. The fans’ love and loyalty seemingly rooted from the fact that BTS' members continuously nurturing their fans in a routine manner through their ubiquitous social media account and channel. By January 2018, Twitter celebrated BTS new milestone, as their official account hits a remarkable number of 12 million followers and makes them the most followed Korean account in Twitter (Herman, 2018), and the number of followers growing up until 18.5 million followers by March 2019. BTS' social media prowess has spurred much of the group's successes. Through the power of social media, their fans made them what they are now, a global superstar. The recent milestones marked by BTS achievements as the representative of K-pop in the late two years had already insinuated the discussions on how fans and celebrity can connect with each other in a whole new intimate level and establish an even closer relationship through social media platform, despite the distinct differences in culture and language. Many Korean Wave studies already dwelled into the mechanism behind the dissemination of Korean culture, but none of it related the K-pop context with the relationship of the celebrity, social media and fans. Thus, the study explored the BTS’s fans in Indonesia using the media dependency theory, along with the parasocial interaction (PSI) and parasocial relationship (PSR) conceptual framework to laid down a path toward a deeper and better apprehension of K-pop fans’ practices in the age of social media.

1.1 Problem Statement Social media channels such as YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook are improving the way in which celebrities communicate with their fans, as it becomes the ideal environment for creating communities, establishing relationships and reinforcing values with many people at one time, as portrayed in Frederick, Lim, Clavio & Walsh (2012) study. The findings emphasized the notion in which fans from all over the world can develop a closer bond with their favorite artist from different region or continent, as they can mingle and interact with them through social media. According to media dependency notion, the extent to which individuals specifically 5

access a specific medium's information to achieve a specific goal impacts the intensity of their dependency relations (Maxian, 2014), which translates to the possibility that the fans could think of social media as a crucial necessity to indulge further into the online interaction between them and their favorite celebrity. Agreed to that particular notion, Rosaen & Dibble (2016) findings in their study also described how the reliability toward the media can strengthen the impact of the other possible media effect that might emerge from celebrities’ interaction with fans on the online sphere. Furthermore, Rihl & Wegener (2017) findings claimed that frequent social media users can also form an emotional attachment with the celebrities or media persona featured on the online platform due to the constant exposure, as formulated theoretically in the psychological concepts of parasocial interaction and relationship. This shows that there is a correlation between media dependency and the other effect that follows. Thus, it is important to highlight the connection between the fans’ media dependency and how it correlates to the possible media effect like parasocial interaction and relationship, as an effort to shed some light upon the current circumstances of the K-pop fans in the age of social media. Prior researches had already disseminated the consumption, progress, and mechanism behind the successful export and penetration of transnational Korean Wave to other countries (Hogarth, 2013; Kwon & Kim, 2013; Peichi, 2013; Jin & Yoon, 2014). Unfortunately, the number of studies in which scrutinizing the Korean Wave content and the audiences remained relatively limited (Jeong et al., 2017; Yoon, 2017; Oh, 2017; Jin, 2018), even more limited for the study which correlates social media and K-pop fans (Jung & Shim, 2013). The previous scope in Jeong et al. (2017) study focuses on the cultural value of the Korean Wave enthusiasts in Indonesia, but the respondents did not actively participate in the K-pop fandom, and the previous scope in Jung & Shim (2013) study mainly scrutinizes the social media distribution of K-pop practices in Indonesia using the case study of Gangnam Style phenomenon, but it did not specifically address the drives behind the fans’ devotion or the media effect that follows. This indicates that there are a necessity and opportunity to conduct more detailed research to provide deeper insights into the K-pop fans in Indonesia. As explained above, compare to the huge Korean Wave market in Indonesia, the researches done upon the relationship between social media, celebrities, and fans in the Korean Wave context are still relatively insufficient. This study attempted to close the existing gap by

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exploring and unravel how the relationship between celebrity and fans are formed in the online platform, in accordance with Yates (2015) suggestion that future investigation about the relationship between fans and celebrity should be based on the interactive media offered via the internet. Therefore, this study explored the BTS’s fans reliance on social media and how it correlated with the media effect like the parasocial notion from the fans’ social media practice. This study also went hand-in-hand with the recent evidence of social media’s prominent role in K-pop and the latest phenomenon brought by fans’ obsession over the sensational K-pop boyband, BTS.

1.2 Objective and Research Questions The main goal of this study is to unravel the whole episode behind the fans and celebrity relationship in the age of social media by examining BTS’s fans in Indonesia as the subject of the study. In doing so, the study will explore the two elements that are considered prominent in influencing the modern fandom practices, the fans’ social media dependency and the notion of parasocial concept - parasocial interaction (PSI) and parasocial relationship (PSR) - that might emerge from the celebrities’ online activities in the social media. In order to achieve these objectives, the following research questions were asked:

RQ1: What is the extent of BTS’s influence on their fan? RQ2: How is the BTS fan’s social media use pattern and dependency? RQ3: Why BTS’s parasocial interaction enhances the parasocial relationship with the fan?

1.3 Significance of the study The topic of this study considered crucial due to the scarcity of K-pop fans studies. The fact that media dependency and parasocial notions are the possible variables between fans and the celebrities has been studied for decades, but to relate it with the current Korean Wave phenomenon will be considered as an interesting addition of scientific literature to enrich the media studies in general. Furthermore, the result of the study will help to provide a better 7

apprehension on the current circumstances of the modern K-pop fans in the developing country like Indonesia. The whole study will also be an eye-opener for K-pop enthusiasts, as this study will enlighten them on how social media has become an important bridge in their fandom practices.

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2.0 Literature Review 2.1 New Korean Wave Era Korean Wave has been understood as the predecessor of Cool Japan, the booming Japanese popular culture era in the 1990s and early 2000s, but the spread and impact are far bigger and monumental than Cool Japan (Hong, 2014) because instead of looking at it as a temporary trend, the South Korean government recognizes Korean Wave commercial viability and economic value. Kwon & Kim (2013) study claimed that for the past 10 more years, South Korean government has implemented comprehensive and ongoing promotion programs for the cultural industries as it is seen as an important contributor in the economic and political sector. In a similar vein, Peichi (2013) claimed that Korean Wave has long been considered as a central strategy to enhance and impose the Korean cultural diplomacy to other countries. This became evident in the case of New Korean Wave or also known as Hallyu 2.0, which designates a new development of Korean Wave in the late 2000s that was characterized by the state support on the Korean entertainment industry and investment on high-tech internet infrastructure (Jeong et al., 2017). Furthermore, South Korean government also take advantages from the digitalization of free Korean Wave content by capitalizing the popularity of Korean media culture in the nearby regional markets, like Japan, Hongkong, Singapore, Indonesia, and many other East and Southeast Asian countries (Peichi, 2013). Derived from Hogarth (2013) study, Korean Wave can also be seen as an alternative option for the Asian people among the omnipresence of Western content in Asia, as the Korean entertainment contents carry and reflect the similar Asian values and ethos, but represented in a more ‘modernized’ packages. Jin & Yoon (2014) further stated that the new phase of the Korean wave in the 2010s, referred to as New Korean Wave, appears to be more intensive in its popularity and extensive in its dissemination. The reason was tightly related to the fact that global audiences are increasingly enjoying popular cultural products such as music, film and other audiovisual media content through online media, and Korean Wave content is riding on this momentum of online cultural flows (Jeong et al., 2017). To conclude, New Korean Wave has been understood as the global penetration of Korean popular culture, especially through social media platforms and virtually connected fan bases (Yoon, 2018). 9

2.2 The Media Dependency of Fans The advent of new social media definitely empowers celebrities and allows them to shape the relationship they have with their fans, independently, outside the context and rule of the mainstream industry. Hence, any people who want to know more about their favorite idol can connect with them through social media. In one special case, the unexpected death of Michael Jackson in which resulted in an online social phenomenon where his fans swarmed to the online platform to confirmed the devastating news and expressed their griefs has perfectly illustrated how the fans nowadays are very dependent towards the internet platform to reconcile the relationship and declare the devotion toward their favorite celebrities (Lee, 2011). Lee (2011) study described further that people can depend on online communities like fandom, in order to seek comfort and emotional support, and apparently, it encourages a new culture of modern fandom in which fans approach social networking sites as a critical necessity in life. In addition to that, another study by Kim, Kim & Yang (2019) also claimed that the state of fans’ psychological well-being, like loneliness, is positively related to the higher level of dependency toward the social media platform. People with the certain psychological problem are found to rely heavily on the media because the media delivers the opportunity to fulfill their interpersonal needs to form a humane connection with other people, in this context, with the celebrities (Song et al., 2014). The imaginary relationship the fans established with the celebrities through social media might refurbish the overall state of their social and psychological well-being, despite it being an illusory experience (Iannone, McCarty, Branch & Kelly, 2017).

2.3 The Parasocial Experience Between Celebrity and Fans Parasocial interaction (PSI) and parasocial relationship (PSR) has been widely understood as both the psychological and media phenomena concerned with the media users' relationship with various media figures (Horton & Wohl, 1956; Frederick et al., 2012). Kehrberg (2015) further explained that the nature of PSI and PSR remains definitively one-sided on the media users' part and heavily mediated. While media users may feel and act as if they are in a somewhat normal two ways connection, it is the media figures who control the message 10

incorporated into the seemingly real interaction or also known as PSI. Unless the real contact is made between the media user and the media figure, the relationship will always remain as parasocial (Frederick et al., 2012). The power of PSI and PSR sh...